Alison Cooklin

Alison Cooklin was born in 1971 in Colchester, Essex. She read Modern Arabic Studies at Leeds University, during which time she spent a year in Cairo, Egypt. It was here that she first fell in love with belly dancing. After graduating in 1993 she worked for MBC, the first ever Arabic speaking global satellite television station. During her eight years with the company she learnt to love the rich and diverse cultures of her arabic speaking colleagues. Her trip to a friend's wedding in Morocco provided the inspiration for the setting of her second book in the Light Travellers series, Noura's Journey, where the heroine Noura faces a long and bewildering journey across the Sahara desert.

Alison then began a new career as a belly dance teacher and performer. It satisfied her creative energies for a while, but the need to write became too strong and whilst her children were very small she began forming her ideas for the series of books that would become the Light Travellers series. Finally in 2015 her children's novel 'The Light Travellers: Luke's Journey' was published.

The author currently lives in Suffolk with her husband and two children.